Biblical Basis for Family Worship
There is no explicit command in the Bible that we are to set aside times of family worship. But we see clear examples throughout scripture that teaching children about God and His ways was an integral part of family life. God chose Abraham “that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:19 ESV).
In Deuteronomy 6, we find a portion of the Shema, a creed that observant Jews (including Jesus) recited every morning and every night:
4“Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Any study of biblical leadership requires a careful examination of the life of Joshua. Near the end of the book that bears his name, Joshua exhorts the people of Israel to choose the god they intend to serve and he says this (Joshua 24:14-15):
Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
The psalmist Asaph writes in Psalm 78,
5He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach their children,
6that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and forget not the works of God,
but keep his commandments.
Asaph writes again in Psalm 145, “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4 ESV). In the New Testament, Paul admonishes fathers by saying, “Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4 ESV).
We have a great responsibility to teach the next generation in the ways the Lord. We do that in several ways: by talking to them as life is happening day in and day out; using “teachable moments” to illustrate patience, kindness, love, and other godly virtues; by keeping them involved in a local church of faithful believers. But one of the best ways to fulfill our obligation to the next generation is to set aside specific times for gathered family worship where the Bible is taught, songs are sung, and prayers are offered.
Here’s what Dr. Voddie Baucham, author of Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God, says about family worship:
